Many older people suffer from hearing loss but find that their hearing aids do not always help them in noisy environments. The purpose of this project is to investigate the kind of noisy environments encountered by older people and which particular real-life situations they find most challenging.
We do this using the latest smartphone technology for automatic but privacy-protected recording and individual rating of real sound environments by older participants. In the laboratory we implement similar sound environments and investigate the impact on speech communication.
The knowledge of auditory ecology generated by the project will guide creation of inclusive sound environments and new counselling strategies. This will promote active and healthy aging and participation of older people in society.
